We can now rape somebody…

GEORGE TOWN: Another person has been bound over on a good behaviour bond for statutory rape. This time, it is an electrician found guilty of raping his 12-year-old girlfriend on two occasions last year.

Sessions judge Sitarun Nisa Abdul Aziz ordered Chuah Guan Jiu, now 22, to be bound over for three years on a RM25,000 good behaviour bond.

Another repentant young man has been bound over for five years to be on good behaviour for raping a minor. The sentence imposed on the 22-year-old electrician, Chuah Guan Jiu (pic), yesterday is the same as the penalty that former national youth squad bowler Noor Afizal Azizan received for a similar offence committed two years ago.

She said the court took into consideration that Chuah was a young, first time offender.

“We also considered the fact that the sexual act was consensual and that he is a school dropout,” she said when handing down the sentence.

Sitarun Nisa said that another consideration was Chuah’s future.

Chuah, who was wearing a shirt and blue jeans, showed no emotion when the sentence was passed.

The court had on July 20 found him guilty of raping the girl, then aged 12 years and 10 months, at his flat in Air Itam between 7am and 1pm on July 18 last year, and between 2.25pm and 2.45pm the next day.

The offence under Section 376(1) of the Penal Code carries a maximum jail sentence of 20 years and whipping.

On Monday, DPP Lim Cheah Yit said Chuah had coaxed the girl into skipping school and following him back to his flat on the pretext of him being sick.

“They were dating and the accused should have protected her but he took advantage of her instead.

She asked him many times to take her to school but he said he felt unwell and took her to his home,” Lim had said when pressing for a deterrent sentence.

In mitigation, counsel Yusuf Idris said his client earned RM30 a day and was staying with his parents and a younger sibling.

“This is his first offence. He has a fixed job now and many years ahead of him,” he said.

Yusuf said his client had repented and urged the court not to impose a custodial sentence in view of Chuah’s age.

The sentencing came in the wake of the case of former national youth squad bowler Noor Afizal Azizan who was bound over for RM25,000 to be of good behaviour for five years after he pleaded guilty to the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl.

There was public uproar on Aug 8 when the Court of Appeal allowed Noor Afizal’s appeal against a High Court’s decision to sentence him to five years jail for the offence.

In a written judgment released on Monday, the Court of Appeal said Noor Afizal, who was 19 at the time of the offence, had not been “very much older” than the minor he had consensual sex with, had cooperated with the police, shown remorse, and given a guarantee that he would not commit such an offence again.

KUALA LUMPUR: National bowler Noor Afizal Azizan would not have got off with a bond for five years for having sex with a minor if he had been older or had used force, coercion or violence.

The Court of Appeal said this in its written judgment released Monday.

Court of Appeal president Justice Raus Sharif, who sat with Justices K.N. Segara and Azhar Ma’ah, wrote the grounds of judgment.

He added that Noor Afizal had not “tricked the girl into submitting to him”.

Justice Raus said that if Noor Afizal had “not cooperated with the police and he had not shown any remorse to his act or there is no guarantee that he will not be committing the same offence in future, we would not have any hesitation, as we have done in many other cases of similar nature, to impose a lengthy custodial sentence.”

There was public uproar on Aug 8 after the court allowed Noor Afizal’s appeal against a High Court decision to sentence him to five years’ jail for statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl.

In his oral decision, Justice Raus had agreed with Noor Afizal’s counsel that public interest would not be served if the bowler received a custodial sentence when he had “a bright future.”

In the Malacca Sessions Court, the judge had imposed a RM25,000 bond with good behaviour for five years on Noor Afizal, 21, after he pleaded guilty to raping the girl at a hotel in Ayer Keroh, Malacca on July 5, 2010.

However, the public prosecutor had appealed to the High Court on Sept 20 last year and obtained a five-year custodial sentence, the mandatory minimum for rape under the Penal Code.

Justice Raus said in his written judgment that any sentence to be imposed on cases like this must be based on the facts of each case, that it is “neither feasible nor desirable to attempt to lay down any fixed sentence that is meant to govern this types of cases.”

“These observations made by this court should not be misconstrued as intending to have blanket application or applying to all cases involving young offenders charged with similar offence as the appellant here.”

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What the Hell is a 22-year old doing dating a 12-year old? Anyhow, I guess this would fall out of the “forcible rape” definition some folks have been pushing these days. Heaven forbid anyone should call this sort of thing what it is, no not misogyny, but accessory, accessory by political means.